Weed Whacker' highlighted the year in drug arrests

Marijuana arrests were aplenty in the region in 2013, but perhaps none was bigger than “Operation Weed Whacker” — as the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office named it — which took down an alleged $14.7-million, cross-country marijuana ring operating in Montgomery and neighboring counties and put eight men behind bars.

Authorities dubbed the ring the “Frederick Enterprise” — calling 40-year-old Dennis Frederick, of Drexel Hill, the mastermind — and said it distributed approximately 3,673 pounds of high-grade marijuana, shipped from California, to customers in the greater Philadelphia area between Jan. 16, 2012 and April 22, 2013.

Frederick’s brother, Jeffrey, 32, and Californian Charles Sadrin, 56 — said to be the group’s pot supplier — were among the co-conspirators hauled in last May after an eight-month investigation conducted by multiple agencies, including the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Narcotics Enforcement Team, Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI.

The investigation, which involved confidential sources, phone wiretaps, law enforcement surveillance and four controlled marijuana buys, began in September of 2012 when authorities discovered a suspected marijuana trafficker operating in Whitpain, then learned a couple of months later that the Frederick brothers were the source of that individual’s marijuana, authorities said.

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Frederick and the other co-conspirators were released from county jail after posting bail over the summer — though some remain under house arrest — and all await trial in county court.

A smaller but arguably weirder pot bust occurred in April when three men were arrested after allegedly attempting to pick up a shipment of marijuana — hidden inside a pallet of boxes — that was sent from California to the K’NEX toy manufacturing facility in Hatfield Township.

Authorities said that on April 12 they were notified by K’NEX staff that they had received a delivery of 10 boxes on a pallet, wrapped in plastic, that had been shipped from California to the factory at 2990 Bergey Road, and that paperwork associated with the shipment indicated that K’NEX was the intended receiver.

Police said the boxes contained cases of martini shakers, and further inspection revealed a total of 47 pounds of marijuana — packaged in one-pound bags — inside six of the boxes, with an estimated street value of $164,500 to $282,000.

A few days later, Nghia Thach, 38, of Upper Gwynedd, came to K’NEX to pick up the boxes, according to police. Officers took him into custody and reportedly found a U-Haul Self Storage security access card in his possession; a subsequent search of the storage locker allegedly turned up an additional 15 pounds of marijuana — also packaged in one-pound bags, with a total street value of $52,500 to $90,000 — along with 115 cases of martini shakers, according to police.

Two days after Thach was arrested, two more men — Hieu Thach, 26, and Hai Danh, 33, both of Camden, N.J. — allegedly showed up at K’NEX to pick up the boxes and both were taken into custody.

All three men are currently awaiting trial in county court on numerous drug-related charges.

Police have not said where in California the shipment of marijuana came from, or why it was sent to K’NEX.

A pot arrest of the more common kind — though the location of the alleged drug dealing was the kicker — went down in February when Fairless Hills resident Leon Nazian, 58, an employee of Lansdale Meats and Deli in Hatfield Township, was taken into custody for purportedly selling weed to plainclothes cops on multiple occasions in the parking lot of Mater Dei Catholic School in Lansdale.

Nazian is awaiting trial on felony possession with intent to deliver and related charges.

Meanwhile, Lansdale resident Robert Weyant, 20, also stands accused of selling drugs near a school for the second time this year. In November, after a three-month investigation, police arrested Weyant, accusing him of dealing marijuana and heroin out of his home located across the street from Penndale Middle School — which is in a school zone.

He’s scheduled to be formally arraigned on drug-dealing charges in county court in January.

In March, Weyant was arrested after Lansdale police said he was dealing marijuana out of his house. Weyant was charged with a dozen drug offenses and ultimately pleaded guilty to felony possession with intent to deliver on Nov. 1 before a county judge who sentenced Weyant to five years’ probation.

Marijuana accounted for many, but not all, of the drug arrests in the North Penn/Indian Valley region in 2013. In August, 36-year-old Gregory Williams, of Philadelphia, was picked up by Lansdale police for allegedly selling cocaine in the borough and nearby municipalities.

And just a few days later, 29-year-old Wendell Savage of Telford — known on the streets as “Six,” according to police — was arrested following a joint investigation by detectives from the Lansdale and Hatfield police departments, in conjunction with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Drug Task Force, which determined that Savage was allegedly selling cocaine in the area out of his blue Lincoln Navigator.